Archive for May, 2010

Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla has very well proved that Israel does not value human lives let alone international laws but the well-wishers of Israel are silent on this issue as Israel undertakes another act of barbarism and continues to show its real face to the world.

Israel Navy troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian activists aboard a six-ship flotilla carrying aid destined for the Gaza Strip before dawn Monday, killing at least 16 people and wounding several others, after the convoy ignored orders to turn back.

The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers also included three Pakistanis namely, Talat Hussain, Agha Raza (Both of Aaj TV) and Mr. Nadeem(of an NGO, Khubaib, Islamabad) , along with representatives of 40 other countries, taking 10,000 tonnes of food, medicine and other goods to Gaza, which has been completely blocked by the Israelis since 2007.

About six hours after the flotilla left waters off the Cyprus coast, three Israeli missile boats left their base in the northern coastal city of Haifa on a mission to intercept the ships.

Television showed footage of black-clad Israeli commandos descending from helicopters and attacking the activists, as well as several wounded people lying on the deck of the ship.

However the Israeli army said the activists attacked soldiers with knifes, clubs and a rifle snatched from an Israeli commando, injuring four Israeli servicemen. Israel also termed the humanitarian aid by peace activists, a violent media provocation against the government of Israel.

There were unconfirmed rumors that Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, had been killed during the Israeli takeover of the boats.

Reaction in Pakistan:

In Islamabad, politicians, lawmakers and journalists staged a peaceful protest against Israel, denouncing the killings and calling on the United Nations and the United States to intervene. Countrywide rallies were also held where common people also participated with the journalists, condemning the Israeli attack and demanding the release Pakistani journalists.

The fate of three Pakistanis, Talat Hussain, Agha Raza (Both of Aaj TV) and Mr. Nadeem is still uncertain after a Gaza-bound aid flotilla they were travelling on was attacked by the Israeli Navy.

Pakistan on Monday condemned an Israeli commando attack on a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip, describing the killings of up to 19 activists as “brutal and inhuman.”

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani “strongly condemned” the attack on the “peaceful flotilla,” his office said. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan was trying to find out whether any of the Pakistanis who were with the flotilla had been affected. The government said, it was “seriously concerned over the well-being and whereabouts” of Pakistani citizens and media personnel on board.

Owing to no diplomatic relations between Israel and Pakistan, Pakistan has started contacting OIC, UN and International Red Cross to lodge protests against Israeli attack and to inquire the whereabouts of three Pakistanis on the freedom flotilla.

Reaction in Turkey:

The Turkish government “strongly protested” against the military action in international waters, calling the interception unacceptable. “Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behaviour, “a Turkish foreign ministry statement said.
Turkey has also reportedly recalled his ambassador to Israel and has demanded to hold emergency meeting of UN Security Council.

Around 10,000 Turkish protestors marched from the Israeli consulate in Istanbul towards the city’s main square on Monday, shouting slogans and waving banners saying “Killer Israel”.

World reaction to Israel’s deadly attack

World seems to be in a state of shock on Israel’s storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which set off an international furor, also drawing criticism from friends and enemies alike.

– Turkey, Germany, France Lead Condemnation of Israeli ship raid.

– Turkey warned Israel of ‘irreparable consequences’ to bilateral ties and has recalled his ambassador to Israel and demands to hold emergency meeting of UN Security Council.

– France’s foreign minister said he was “profoundly shocked” by the violence.

– Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the killings as a massacre.

– Iran, one of Israel’s biggest foes in the Muslim world, said the killings were “inhuman” and would help lead to the Jewish state’s demise.

– Arab League calls Israel’s raid a “Terrorist Act” and called for an emergency meeting on Israel’s attack on aid flotilla.

– Greece’s National Defense Ministry called off a joint air force exercise with Israel after the news.

– Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned the Israeli action as “a dangerous and crazy step that would inflame the struggle in the region.”

Enough has been said and expressed through the use of words but it is high time now to take some timely action to save the rest of the lives for the sake of each country’s own honour and integrity if not humanity.

Frustrated with Facebook’s lack of privacy and biased policies, few techies have launched Pakistan’s first social network, MillatFacebook.

A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, Launched www.millatfacebook.com on Tuesday for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy.

The private venture came after a Pakistani court ordered a block on Facebook until May 31, following deep offence over an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” page considered “blasphemous” and “sacrilegious”.

“Millatfacebook is Pakistan’s very own, first social networking site. A site for Muslims by Muslims where sweet people of other religions are also welcome,” the website tells people interested in signing up.

The Urdu word “Millat” is used by Muslims to refer to their nation. The website claims to have attracted 4,300 members in the last three days — mostly English-speaking Pakistanis in their 20s.

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

Children have a natural antipathy to books – handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Everyone should keep someone else’s diary.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.

In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

The good end happily, the bad unhappily – that is what fiction means.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

When people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Who, being loved, is poor?

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard, some do it with a bitter look, some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword!